News Cafe Emperors Palace — Restaurant in Gauteng

We (2 people) stopped by to have a few drinks. On arrival we were told by a manager that he could offer us a table but we were puzzled as the table in question was filthy and there was a young child sleeping across the two chairs which I pointed out to him and the manager looked at me very surprised. There was a huge table setup in the middle of the restaurant which was for a birthday party that was clearly done by the time we arrived around 6:40pm but the mess was not cleared up. I say mess because the surrounding area and surrounding tables were messed with cake, crumbs, icing and the spillage from the party. We told the manager that we would sit on a nearby chair and wait for the table to be cleared. So 10 minutes later, nothing was being cleared or cleaned in fact the waiter was just piling all the dirty dishes on the table that was supposed to be cleared out for us!! The manager reappeared and saw us still waiting on the table and then told the waiter to clear the table for us which was going to now take longer so I told the waiter that we would just sit where we were and asked for a menu. He came back with only a food menu but we wanted a drinks menu so I had to flag down another waiter and he brought us 1 menu only…. upon further questioning, he said that they only had 1 menu available!!! We placed our drinks order around 6:55pm and had to wait about 20 minutes for it to arrive!! We told him that we had to be elsewhere so we had limited time as we placed a second order at 7:25pm another 25 minutes later, the second drinks arrived and we were out of time so we had to get takeaway cups for our beautiful drinks, find a waiter to pay and then leave! Such poor service, staff and overall experience… everyone seems to be running around but nothing is really being accomplished!! We had to share 1 menu then other waiters asked to borrow that same menu, when we stood up to take a picture, the waiter wanted to take the chair from us too!? Overwhelmingly loud music so much so that we couldn’t have a conversation with each other!! Clear lack of leadership in that place and I would not...

I recently visited Emperor's Palace News Café and unfortunately, the experience did not live up to our expectations, especially compared to other branches we've been to. Upon arrival, we were seated in an area that was directly in the sun, which made it uncomfortable for us. We moved to a different section without sun, but were informed that the area was only open from 6 PM. We found it puzzling that this area could not be used, as the restaurant was not very busy and there were no other suitable seats available.

Furthermore, we were disappointed to find out that several cocktails and appetizers from the menu were not available, which made it difficult to place our order. As time passed, the music was turned on and it was so loud that it became difficult to hear one another. We requested to have the volume adjusted, but unfortunately, our concerns were not addressed.

Overall, this experience left us with a bad impression, especially since we had brought a friend from out of town who was looking forward to visiting a News Café for the first time. We have visited other News Café locations and found them to be much better in terms of service and overall experience. We hope that the management will take steps to address these issues so that future customers can have a more...

We went to Emperors Palace on a Friday night. It was very busy, and News cafe was the only "quiet" restaurant. We went to News Cafe regularly a few years ago - then the local branch closed down - so we thought the experience will be a nice trip down memory lane. How wrong!!

The music was ridiculously loud - if the clients need to yell at the waiter, and the waiter STILL can't hear, then the music is too loud. If the client needs to yell into the waiter's ear to be heard, and the waiter still only gets half the order right, then the music is too loud!! We didn't feel it was fair to be harsh on the waiter because the issue of the loud music.

The prices were unexpectantly high - not sure if this is because the restaurant is at a casino? But, if you compare price to quality of food , it's not worth it.

The menu options is quite limited and there is very little variety, especially regarding different tastes - like chicken, or vegetarian. Fine, if you don't serve chicken, then don't serve chicken, but one dish is just not enough variety.

The food was still nice (not great) and the waiter really tried, which is why this is 3 stars...